Poultry farming

.. main objective of this project component is to contribute to sustainable poultry meat production, where farmer income and animal health is increased and environmental burden is decreased ..

Poultry farming systems

The poultry farming sector needs to increase its production to meet the increasing demand for poultry meat. In Indonesia, broilers (chickens bred and raised specifically for meat production) are mostly produced by small and medium scale farms. These farms, often open sheds, offer little biosecurity, have limited access to clean water and have no or insufficient facilities to control temperatures. As a result, the broilers suffer from heat stress and poor health, which contributes to low feed conversion rates, high mortality rates, high use of antibiotics and other veterinary medicines and reduced farm incomes. The average slaughter weight of the birds is well below the optimal weight. A combination of training on improved broiler farming practices and investments in broiler house infrastructure is needed to improve the performance and economic viability of the small and medium scale broiler farming sector.

The main objective of this project component is to contribute to sustainable poultry meat production, where farmer income and animal health is increased and environmental burden is decreased.

To achieve the above, several interventions will be implemented during the implementation phase of DIFS-Live. These interventions will focus on medium sized private broiler production farms (5,000 – 25,000 bird places).

DIFS-Live assists with co-financing of the Dutch and Indonesian hardware required for the interventions, the development of on-site training programmes, improved designs of broiler houses and equipment and with management concepts.

Interventions

As part of this component the following interventions will be implemented:

1. On-site training programmes to improve broiler farm management
The DIFS-Live partners will develop and implement on-site training programmes. They will work closely together with District and Provincial livestock services and the poultry sector organisations GOPAN. The on-site training programmes will be developed and tested at pilot farms. The broiler training programmes are centred on the optimization of the available resources such as feed quality, water quality, day-old-chick quality, etc. Monitoring the performance of the broilers and the farming conditions will form the basis for optimizing the farm performance. The programmes can be used later also by local trainers and university teachers to train and educate broiler farmers and students at different levels.

2. Development of innovative broiler house and equipment designs
New innovative broiler house and equipment designs are developed during this intervention including specific elements for existing houses. Selected designs will be translated into pilots and are tested in the field. The testing of new broiler house designs and climate control technologies are implemented parallel to the on-site training on improved broiler farm management.

3. Strengthening Curriculum at vocational school (SMK)
The existing poultry curriculum at the vocational schools (SMK) in Western Java will be strengthened to better fit the needs of the developing poultry sector.